Yeerk's Worst Nightmare
by Larania Drake
Summary: A former Controller comes back for revenge.
1. Default Chapter Title

Disclaimer: It don't belong to me. Never has. Never will, except that Elspeth is my character. There is a reason for that name, largely 'cuz I couldn't think if another. This is a crossover of Animorphs, and The Crow: Stairway to Heaven

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Yeerk's Worst Nightmare

One year ago:

My name is Elspeth. I was a fourteen year old, in my first year of high school. You could say that I am something of a martial arts nut. I have taken karate, tae kwon do, and tang soo do. I practice when I can between baby-sitting jobs. That is largely how I make money to keep going to classes. I really like most off the kids I sit for. They think of me as their big sister.

This is why one night I when was watching this one little boy, when his parents went to this new club called the Sharing, I was worried enough to listen. 

"Elsie, I'm scared. Mom and Dad were talking last night. They said that they are going to have me infested tonight. What does infested mean? Is it something bad?" he asked in a quavering voice.

I was confused by the question. 'Infested?' Infested by what? I thought. 

"What do you mean, hon, by infested? The only kind of infesting that I know of is by ticks, termites, and other nasty stuff. Yeah, you could say it is bad," I answered. "When were your mom and dad talking about this?"

"Last night after they thought I was asleep. They said I was a problem and that I needed to be made a full member."

I was getting very confused. I decided to ask his parents after they came home.

"Don't leave tonight, please! I'm scared!"

"It's okay, sweety, I won't let anything happen. I'll stay for a while to make sure everything is safe," I said reassuringly. I wished someone would reassure me.

His parents came home around 11p.m. that night. I was sitting at their kitchen table trying to study for my next test. It was a real killer.

They came in, surprised to find me still there. They had told me to put their son to bed at 9 and for me to leave after he had gone to sleep.

I looked up and said," He was afraid for me to leave him. He was very worried about something. It had to do with being infested."

They looked at me with consternation. I wondered about that. "Is there lice going around the school?"

They looked kind of relieved. I felt the back of my neck start to tingle. Something was majorly wrong here. "You guys spend a lot of time at the Sharing, don't you?" Stall, was all I could think. Keep them talking and maybe you can find something out.

"HEY! INIS 7690, YOU GOT THE KID YET?" came a voice form the garage.

I stood up, and the lady tried to break a dish over my head. I deflected it. The little boy had woken up, and walked in. No! I thought. I promised nothing would happen to him!

Adreniline pumping, I grabbed the broom and swung it like a bo staff. I had knocked out the father and was heading for the mother, when all went black.

I awoke in hell. 

I was in a cage filled with crying, moaning, screaming people. There wa a line off calm, sedate people who.. who leaned over this murky, lead colored pool, and this disgusting slug fell out of their ears. They screamed and struggled as soon as the thing had left them. The other line was of people who struggled, their heads were dipped into the ooze and walked away calm as you please. I figured out quickly what my charge had meant about 'infestation'. 

The next few months were the worst of my life. I was made into a host. Nothing was my own. My arms, my legs, my eyes. Not even my breathing. There was this constant taunting voice, forever reminding me of my loss.

The worst part was seeing the little boy become a host, a Controller. I had promised to keep him safe. I had failed, and that guilt was worse than anything the Yeerks could do to me.

Then, on the day of the first attack of the Andalite Bandits on the Pool, I felt hope again. We were free. I found my little boy, and we ran. 

That was when Visser 3 started firing off those fireballs. My charge was incinerated by a blast at point blank range. I had only a little time to grieve, before I, too, was incinerated.

Rachel

It's hard to believe that we've been at this for a year now. One whole year of combat, of terror, of seeing things no free human has ever seen. Weird.

We are all in high school now. Cassie and Jake have been a steady item for a while, but other than that, nothing has really changed.

I was on my way back from the mall, when I noticed something strange. A girl was wandering around in a daze. She was walking into people like she didn't see them. Them she walked into me. Her clothes were a bare minimum. 

"Hey, are you okay?" I said. She didn't answer. I grabbed her shoulder.

"I asked if you are okay." I repeated. There was this blank look on her face that made me wonder if she was high on something.

She sat down, and I sat beside her. I pulled out the black shirt that I had just bought. The temperature outside had been dropping a lot, even though the mall was pretty warm. She looked dazedly at the shirt, then put it on.

"Who are you?" I asked in my be-kind-to-the-stoned-idiot voice.

She looked back at me, acknowleding my presence for the first time.

""GET AWAY FROM ME!" she screamed. She ran out of the mall, knocking several people out of the way as she did so. 

Elspeth

Whowhatwere? WhereamI? WhoamI? My thoughts ran together in a snarled tangle. I couldn't make out anything, not left from right, up from down. I wasn't supposed to be here. I should be somewhere else. I had something to do. I needed to find… I couldn't remember. Whowhatwherewhen….

Marco

"I saw Rachel help the doped up lady sit, and then saw her run away. I went up to her to ask what had happened.

"I don't know. She just got a good look at me, and screamed."

"Guess your good looks aren't quite so good, huh, Rachel."

"Knock it off, Joxer. I think she really needed help. I'm going to, uh, you know, and follow her," said Rachel.

"Well, you might need back up, so I'll go along."  
"Suit yourself."

Elspeth

My name is..my name is.. It just won't stop. Nothing is familiar, nothing seems real.

What the hell is going on here? 

Flash

(This has got to be hell…I think, as they dip my head in the muck.)

Did I just remember something?

Encouraged, I sit down and start repeating everything that goes through my head.

Doesn't work.

Feeling frustrated, I reach out to grab a stray can, trying to throw it.

Flash

(I see an old man drinking from the can, and tossing it on the sidewalk. He is then grabbed by someone and shot for 5 dollars)

Whoa.

I start walking again, hoping to see something familiar…

Rachel

There is definitely something wrong with that girl. She sat down on the sidewalk and never noticed the people around her. I said in thought speak.

Yeah, I know. She's heading for the school.

Elspeth

A school. 

I wander into the building, and around in the hall. I feel like this place is familiar. It is good. I can just almost reach out and touch my memories, if I just see a bit more.

The gym. This is where I started to learn…

I caught of a girl in the big mirror in the dance studio. I see that she is tall, has a strong frame. She has curly blond hair and brown eyes. She is me.

Flash

(Hana, dol, set, net, taset, yaset, ilgup yadol. These are numbers that I learned in my first martial arts class.)

Then the memories hit me. Going to my favorite kid's place to sit for him. Being made into a Controller. Dying. Dying at the hands of Visser 3.

"NOOOOO!" I scream.

Some teacher hear me and run in. I look at them. They are Controllers. I feel rage. A need for Vengance. For Justice. Maybe then I could rest.

They look at me, like they can't believe what they are seeing. They run.

I laugh.

I walk out of the gym. I see two birds of prey in a tree outside the school doors. I walk out of the building. A large crow lands on my shoulder. Yes, I can feel it thinking. We will make things right.

Rachel

Rachel, Marco said.

Yeah? I replied.

If I wasn't in osprey morph I think I'd wet myself.

Same here, Marco. Same here.

We watched as the girl with the crow on her shoulder walked off, then saw the crow fly away. We went to Cassie's to tell the others what we'd seen.

Well, tell me what you think. Is it weird, or what?


	2. Revenge Can Be a Killer

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Yeerks Worst Nightmare 2: Revenge Can be a Killer

Disclaimer: Animorphs belongs to Scholastic, the Crow: Stairway to Heaven does not belong to me. None of it does, and I am not making any money.

I remember now. Everything. Being captured by the Yeerks. Being infested. Having that disgusting worm crawl into my ear. Escape. A few blessed seconds of freedom.

I also remember dying. Dying at the hands of Visser 3. 

I have come back. I will put things right. I will have my revenge. There will be justice, even if it kills me. 

Funny. I'm already dead.

I head for the nearest Yeerk Pool entrance. I remember it being in the junior high. So that is where I head.

Inside the school, I went to the janitor's supply closet. Flash.

I remembered going there every three days, desperately hoping for the chance to escape. I remembered leaving every three days, my hope destroyed again. 

I was still pretty much zoned out when I felt a hand grab my arm. Without thinking about it, I grabbed his hand, twisted it around and bent it back, and down. I came within a breath of breaking the wrist.

"Ah!" yelped the tallish blond boy who stood behind me.

I released his wrist.

He shook his arm out and asked," You lost?"

"No, I know what I'm doing," I whispered.

I turned around and quickly twisted the catches that should have opened the door to the Pool. They didn't work.

I hit the sink in frustration.

"Are you sure you are all right?" the boy asked again.

"No," I answered, my voice a low growl. I hit the sink again. This time it shattered. I had forgotten about the boy being there. I really didn't care. If he were a Controller, I would find out soon enough.

I incline my head politely, and made as if to leave. Then I slammed the door closed behind me and pin the boy to the wall of the closet.

Tobias

Marco and Rachel had sent me to follow the doped up girl they had seen at the mall. I found her easily enough, but then she had gone into the junior high. I decided to morph to human to follow her in. I got there just in time to see her go into the closet that had the old Yeerk Pool entrance. When I tried to ask her if she was lost, the first time, she ignored me. When I touched her arm, she made Xena proud. She broke the sink. How the heck did she break the sink?

Now she has me pinned to a wall. Good grief.

"Are you a Controller?" she snarled. I gasped as she tried to cut off my circulation in my head.

"What are you talking about?" I wheezed.

"You know very well what I'm talking about. No one except Controllers has ever come into this closet."

"You're hurting me. Let go and I will tell you," I cried, because I was starting to grey out. 

She slackened her grip, then let me go. 

I didn't know what I was going to tell her. Well to begin with I could _definitely _tell her," I'm not a Controller. I never was. I never will. I'll kill myself first!"

She snorted, and gave me a look that was the kind that someone gives to a person they think has no idea of what they are talking about.

"That would be a very easy lie. Yesterday this door was open! I know it was! It was the one that that thing would make me walk down…" She trailed off, and gave a shuddering gasp. The pain she was in was obvious. But I had to wonder. When we destroyed the Kandrona, a lot off Yeerks died in their hosts, many were released. Most were killed. How could she have gotten away? Why did she think that it had been open yesterday?

She collected herself and gave me a slight, crooked smile. "You are right, though. Death was far better than what those-things- do to you. If this is a gambit, it will do you no good anyway. If you are a Controller, I was the host of Jard 178 of the Crazsk-Felp Pool. My name is Elspeth, or it was, before, a lot of things."

"I'm Tobias." I was surprised that I gave my name. But I felt that I needed to offer her my help, though I do know enough to be cautious. "I think I can help you. If you would be willing to meet me at the Gardens tomorrow, at five, maybe…we can work together." 

"I doubt that. You would be excess baggage in what I have to do. I don't want anyone getting hurt by being in the way."

She opened the door, and I swear, she disappeared. I don't know how. She just did. 

Elspeth

I was surprised I gave Tobias my real name. If he gave me his. The possibility of allies had not occurred to ma. I really didn't know how to process that. Maybe I will go tomorrow.

I felt a peculiar feeling of double vision. I was in the air, feeling the wind rush across my feathers. I was watching a hawk with red tail feathers rise above the school. It was that bird, and it was telling me to follow that hawk. I started following the crow, which would show me the way.

Tobias

I flew back to Cassie's barn, and landed in the rafters. I told everyone about how that girl, Elspeth had been a Controller, and was trying to get revenge. 

"It gets weirder, Tobias," said Rachel. She was sitting cross-legged on a hay bale. "We thought of something like that, and we asked Eric to check to se if she was a Controller. We didn't find anything, until…" she stopped and shivered.

"Until I went through the deceased records. I recognized her form the description that Marco and Rachel gave, as to being the host of a Yeerk who is my Yeerk's Pool brother. The only problem with that theory is that she died in your first attack on the yeerk pool."

What! I nearly screamed. I couldn't believe that. She was a walking, talking person. They had to have gotten the records wrong. I said as much. 

"No," said Eric. He made a projection using his hologram. "Watch."

We all saw our failed attack on the Yeerk pool. But this time I saw Elspeth in the cages. I saw her make a run for freedom after Marco had opened the door. Saw her get incinerated by Visser 3. I couldn't believe it any way. People just don't come back from the dead.

"How, how can that be possible?" asked Jake.

No one answered him

Elspeth

I saw a barn, and watched the crow fly into it. I followed. Inside were a group of teenagers, about my age. They were talking about me. They were asking how I could have come back.

"I wish I knew," I answered.

They all whirled around to face me. I looked up to the rafters to see the hawk I had followed to get here. 

"Who are you?!" exclaimed the tall, muscular one.

"My name is Elspeth." The crow landed on my shoulder. I was getting used to its presence.

"You've got to be lying," said the pretty blond. "Elspeth is dead."

"So I am. I think I was, anyway. I wish I knew."

I glanced over and saw my infestor's pool mate. I hissed. I walked over to him slowly, and as I do, I felt a change. I was more powerful I cold start justice right now.

"Justice is a dish best served cold, don't you think, yeerk?"

Jake

I watched in horror as this girl changed before me. Her face became dead white, with black lips and black markings on her eyes. Even her nails turned black.

She started walking toward Eric, but Ax morphed back to himself and got in the way. He tried to hit her with his tail, but she performed a perfect high block and deflected it. He tried again and again to connect, but every time she was faster.

Stop! yelled Tobias, Stop! He's not a Controller, Elspeth! Eric, show her! 

Eric dropped his hologram and opened his head to show her that the yeerk was a prisoner. She stopped suddenly, and Ax's attack got through. His tail-blade impaled her chest. She sank to the barn floor, and went limp. Cassie ran over and checked her pulse. Her expression told everyone what had happened.

"Great going Ax!" yelled Marco. "You killed her!"

Then she sat up. We all gave some sort of strangled gasp of amazement.

"I'm already dead, like I told you. I think I can only be killed once." She coughed. "That doesn't make dying any easier, though."

Ax went over and helped her up. If circumstances were better, I would ask for the honor of sparing with you on a regular basis. Prince Jake, I think we should tell her who we are. 

"I agree, Ax. I think we could use your help Elspeth. If you hate the yeerks, you have come to the right place."

We told her the story of how we became Animorphs. Eric showed her the scenes of how she died. She flinched, and I could only imagine what it was like to have to see your own death.

"I've been dead a year, huh? So my parents…"

None of us knew how to answer that. 

"I will join you for now. But I have to do something. I have to put things right, get justice, or I will never be able to go back. I'm not supposed to be here. I just wish I knew what it was I'm supposed to be doing." 

I wish I knew too, I thought.

Cassie said something we all agreed about.

"We want to help you, Elspeth."

Comments on how weird it is? E-mail me!


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